The new climbing wall, five years in the making, was unveiled at the beginning of the year Community Circle on August 20, 2012. Enjoy this video by Evergreen alum Jade Oakes about the process of building.

On February 6th, Joy's fifth grade class got to harvest greens from our community garden. Students were assigned jobs to do in the garden so that the work would go quicker.

Two of Joy's fifth graders, Drake & Banyan, were assigned the job of clearing out the garden beds that weren't in use and putting all of the sticks and brush in our school compost. The sticks must be broken up before being put in the compost. In the school compost, there is food scraps (no meat), brush, leaves, compostable plates and cups, and hay.

In the hoop-house, students were harvesting the good-enough-to-eat leaves. In our hoop-house students were harvesting two types of kale, two types of lettuce, and mache, which is also known as corn salad, rapunzel, field salad, or lamb's lettuce. That is a little known salad green with a mild lettuce flavor. The fifth graders enjoy nibbling on little bits of this while at work. Students were helped by Cheryl, a parent volunteer.

At our washing station, there was a bin full of water and harvested greens. Students were washing the greens to make sure they're clean. The students knew that when the leaves started to get shiny they were almost clean!

When the leaves were washed they were brought to the weighing station, where the greens would be put in a reusable grocery bag and weighed on a scale. Phoenix, another fifth grade student, would write down how many pounds it weighed so that we could keep track of how much we harvested.

After the greens were weighed, they were brought to the packaging table where, teachers and students packaged clean, weighed greens in plastic bags to give to Manna Food Bank. Sarah, an Evergreen teacher, helped the students package and label the greens harvested. Students made labels to put on the bags that said Evergreen Community Charter School and what was in the bag. The packaged greens went in a tub to be brought to Manna Food Bank.

Our fifth graders really enjoyed harvesting food and giving to the needy! They felt really good afterwards! That evening fifth grade student, Zachary and Evergreen's loved Miss Terry drove down and gave the large bin full of greens to Manna Food Bank!

Joy's fifth grade associate teacher, Erin Pagliaro said, " What I enjoy most about working in our community garden, is that it provides opportunities for students to experience success in a team effort, provides students with a connection to the natural world, and it fulfills the school's goal of giving to our community."

Fifth Graders are Harvesting Heroes!by Malina Japp and Ryan Rosenfelt

Joy Neily and Erin Pagliaro’s fifth grade class went to the garden and became harvesting heroes. They were split up into groups to work together in their stations. One station harvested the salad greens, one group washed them, another weighed the greens, and the last group packaged the greens to donate them to Manna Food Bank.

To harvest the salad greens the harvesters take the scissors and snip the leaves and leaving the stems for them to grow back. This is a way that Evergreen saves money in the garden. Parent volunteer Alaya Dickinson helped in the process of harvesting. “Harvesting is wet and dirty” says fifth grader Lily Harsch.

The washing station is where the fifth graders in that group wash the salad greens. When they wash the greens, they lightly push down and pick up to wash them thoroughly. Two Evergreen eighth graders, Kathrine Lindsay and Merideth Cox helped out in this station. ”Washing was wet and awesome!” states Drake Tomlinson. Before they hand the greens to the weighers, they shake the greens over the water to dry the salad greens.

Then the weighing station gets the greens next. They weigh the salad greens on the scale, to keep track of all of the food we are giving to Manna Food Bank. “The weighers had a whole system, one person recorded the weights, one person told the weight, and the other brought the salad greens to the packager” comments Cheyton Hall. Next the salad greens go to the packaging station.

In the packaging station, they take the greens and put them into bags to give to Manna Food Bank. “There were many things we couldn’t package so we had to sort the bad things and the good things out,” says packager Lia Trebilcock. Finally they label the greens to be given to Manna. “Packaging was really fun!” says Eilonwy Foor.